Wages lagging, VON workers lament

Home support workers on Newfoundland's west coast say their wages are not keeping up with anticipated increases.

Workers with the Victorian Order of Nurses in the Corner Brook region said they should be getting a raise as the minimum wage rises, but are not.

Helen Myers, a 13-year veteran in the field, said workers with VON were upset as the provincial government phased in minimum wage increases, but their salaries didn't keep pace.

"They want their money, and they're upset about it and they're angry," she said.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Private and Public Employees, which represents the workers, is negotiating a new collective agreement with the VON.

Eileen Pitcher, executive director of the Corner Brook branch of the VON, said while the government pays the VON for every hour of home care that its workers provide, she is not aware of any arrangement to peg salaries to changes in the minimum wage.

"There has been no direction given to the VON that says we are increasing the minimum wage in the province, so therefore you have to increase your salary by those dollars," Pitcher said.

"I think we'd all love to see… higher salaries. The fact is if every collective agreement had to be changed when a change occurred within a minimum wage, I think that would probably create a nightmare for every employer and for every union," she said.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government is raising the minimum wage to $8 per hour, through incremental 25-cent hikes.

Officials with the provincial Health Department could not be reached for comment Friday.

VON workers in Corner Brook waged a two-month strike in 2004. The dispute was resolved when Premier Danny Williams intervened in the matter, althoughWilliams's unilateral actionprompted Elizabeth Marshall to quit as health minister.